What Makes Garrett's Offensive Approach Unique

[theebs]

I don't think SF or Seattle count as real NFL football teams right now,,

Tell that to Brett favre and the jets and you can also tell that to Bill Belichick and the pats team that should have lost to them 3 weeks ago.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

Tell that to Brett favre and the jets and you can also tell that to Bill Belichick and the pats team that should have lost to them 3 weeks ago.

that wouldn't change the fact that both of those teams suck bad,,, right?

 

[theebs]

that wouldn't change the fact that both of those teams suck bad,,, right?

They have had issues, but if you dont get on the field and beat them up they hang around and make a game out of it or win. Seattle has just been beat up not terrible.

Their secondary is still solid and their linebackers are very good, obviously missing kearney hurts them but still to have the numbers we did in the first half and the efficiency that we did it was impressive, no matter what anyone tells you.

 

[28 Joker]

I loved Garrett's @ Green Bay and @ Washington games. He came out and established the run early with Marion Barber. It wasn't passing to set up the run; it was, here we are, we are going to smash your face, and you can't stop us. I think this is when Dallas is the most dangerous. Garrett came out with a physical mentality. I would like to see more of this.

Dallas has shown ability to do this, but you have to be committed to it. It should be noted that Kozier was the LG in those two games.

In those two games, the Cowboys established the run early and came back to it at the end of the game. If you can establish just enough running early on, it makes life so much easier on your quarterback and offensive line, especially against this division. The Commanders have good cover people. That running game was huge.

I hope Garrett runs the football early, even if it isn't working too great. That will limt the number of pass attempts and blitzes on Tony Romo.

The Cowboys still need the 20+ yard plays, like Theebs says, but I think they have to run some to limit Trent Cole and company from just pinning their ears back.

You are not going to beat teams like the Ravens when you throw it 45 times. Eventually, some of the exotic blitzes are going to break down your protection. Dallas needs to be productive when they pass the ball. That will minimize Romo's attempts, too.

That is why I think Romo needs to do his damage with 25-30 pass attempts. If you keep dropping back (over 30 times) against the Eagles or Giants or Steelers or Ravens, your protection is going to break down. The defenses are too good.

Running the football, even if it isn't working great, protects Tony Romo and his offensive line, imo.

 

[Wood]

how many teams have a TO, Witten and Roy Williams....thus the heavy emphasis to passing.

 

[Bleu Star]

There are six different teams that rank among the league's top ten defenses and have a running game which also ranks in the top ten. Those six teams are highlighted in each list:

Top 10 Defenses (yards per play)
1 Pit
2 Phi
3 Bal
4 Ten
5 Chi
6 Dal
7 Was
8 Min
9 NYG
10 Car

Top 10 Offensive Rushing (yards per carry)
1 NYG
2 KC
3 Car
4 NYJ
5 Den
6 Min
7 NE
8 Was
9T Dal
9T Hou
9T Sea
9T Ten

A strong defense, paired with a successful running game, should mean your number of pass attempts is low. And that is the case with 5 of the 6 teams. The Cowboys are the only exception. This next list says it all about how out of step our offensive philosophy actually is...

Team/Rush Att/Pass Att
NYG.....5th...22nd
Ten......4th...26th
Was......8th...17th
Min.......3rd...28th
Car.......7th...32nd
Dal......22nd...11th

The first ranking is total rushing attempts for the season so far. All the teams with good defenses who can also run the ball effectively rank among the top 1/4 of the NFL in rushing attempts. Except Dallas, which in one rushing attempt away from ranking in the bottom ten of the league. Conversely, all these teams with effective running attacks and good D's, don't throw the ball much, and rank in the bottom half of the league in pass attempts. Except the Cowboys, who are just 4 pass attempts away from the top ten.

Garrett is, in essence, the only fish trying to swim upstream. The Cowboys are the only team of the six to have attempted more than 500 passes this season. Dallas ranks 22nd in the league in rush attempts--behind the Saints, behind the Eagles. Any other team that runs the ball as little as we do, either can't run the ball well, or can't play good defense. And there are several teams about which both are true, that run the ball more than we do.

I could have told you this without all the gaudy stats but thanks for putting them together. No one listens when I point to Garrett's silliness. Perhaps some stat work will hammer it home.

 

[percyhoward]

how many teams have a TO, Witten and Roy Williams....thus the heavy emphasis to passing.

How many teams does the "heavy passing emphasis" work for?

Consistently, I mean.

 

[links18]

I could have told you this without all the gaudy stats but thanks for putting them together. No one listens when I point to Garrett's silliness. Perhaps some stat work will hammer it home.

The thing about Garrett's silliness is that last year all that passing actually worked, up until the 2nd Eagles game. 3rd and 19 in the Bears game? No problem Romo hits Crayton for the 1st down. 3rd and long in the first Giants game? Romo hits Sam Hurd for a TD.

We got really lucky more than once last season, which just reinforced the idea in Garrett's head that we are pass first offense that can overcome long down and distance situations with our explosive passing attack. This year that philosophy just hasn't panned out, but Garrett has failed to adjust to make the best use out of what really could be a potent ground game. How long did it take for Choice to get some carries?

 

[percyhoward]

the thing is, STATS LIE, they lie all of the time. This team's running game is not very good and most of it's big stats come from late in the game, when the opposing defense is tired from being on the field because of long drives anchored by the passing game.

No, the thing is, you're making stuff up.

Our offense is 18th in time of possession. That doesn't make opposing defenses tired, and that's why we don't, in fact, have big rushing numbers in the 2nd half of games. Our three RB's combined numbers look like this:

First half
162 for 737 4.55 ypc

Second half
182 for 817 4.49 ypc

Barber, Jones, and Choice have actually done better in the first half of games than in the second half.

 

[pgreptom]

In Garrett's offense, the QB likes to punt? But then again Danny White did that too. :laugh2:

If we could upvote posts, I'd upvote this.

Very clever.

 

[percyhoward]

We got really lucky more than once last season, which just reinforced the idea in Garrett's head that we are pass first offense that can overcome long down and distance situations with our explosive passing attack. This year that philosophy just hasn't panned out, but Garrett has failed to adjust to make the best use out of what really could be a potent ground game.

Last year, Garrett didn't have to make as many adjustments--and basically didn't have to coach as much--because we were relatively injury-free, and we only played five games against top ten defenses, and went 3-2 in those games. The playoff one-and-out was our 6th game against a top ten defense, and Owens was nowhere near 100%. In that sense, bad luck caught up to us last year.

This year the bad injury luck and tough schedule hit us almost from the start. We'll end up with 8 games against top ten defenses (half our schedule). Again, we've won 3 games, but we've lost 4. In effect, the same success rate as last year, because you could argue that we beat Tampa when they were still a very good defense. If we make the playoffs, there won't be any easy defenses left to face.

 

[links18]

Last year, Garrett didn't have to make as many adjustments--and basically didn't have to coach as much--because we were relatively injury-free, and we only played five games against top ten defenses, and went 3-2 in those games. The playoff one-and-out was our 6th game against a top ten defense, and Owens was nowhere near 100%. In that sense, bad luck caught up to us last year.

This year the bad injury luck and tough schedule hit us almost from the start. We'll end up with 8 games against top ten defenses (half our schedule). Again, we've won 3 games, but we've lost 4. In effect, the same success rate as last year, because you could argue that we beat Tampa when they were still a very good defense. If we make the playoffs, there won't be any easy defenses left to face.

Even against the lesser defenses, we were still forced to overcome long down and distances situation rather frequently last year. We were still shooting ourselves in the foot with a lot of penalties and snaps over the QB's head. For some reason, we were able to convert those much more easily up until the 2nd Eagles game last season. Not so much since........

 

[percyhoward]

Even against the lesser defenses, we were still forced to overcome long down and distances situation rather frequently last year.

Playing more of those weak D's last year may be the reason those 3rd-and-very long's were easier to convert.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

There are some seriously damning stats in this thread. So, we have an OC who has a running game that has comparable per rush averages to the best teams in the league, but doesn't run the ball. We also have stats showing that Romo is under a ton of pressure when we drop back to pass.

So, is there any wonder why we're struggling on offense now?

 

[jobberone]

We are getting zone blitzed a lot with a good number of corner and safety blitzes. Our OL is not handling it well esp with the offensive pass patterns/play calling. Too much pressue on Romo.

To make matters worse they are stacking the box and pressuring underneath which is taking away our run and our short pass patterns. That forces more passes falling into the blitz game even more. And with Tony not hitting those seam passes and long passes we don't have much of a plan left. They're even taking away the RB dump passes underneath.

Tony and Red need to come up with a plan along with Houck to stop that. I don't know why we don't go more max protect with smart reads by the backs/Hbacks to beat this stuff. And Tony has got to occasionally burn them for blitzing and force a more honest game. A TD to TO or RWR would be helpful.

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I'm of the opinion that we do not run the ball enough. In the games we have truely played well, offensively, we have executed a balanced offense. I consider a good game to be holding the opposing team to 20 or less and winning by an minimum margin of 10. If you look at all the games we've been able to do that in the past two seasons: (GB, Seattle and Giants, Minn, Chicago, Stl, Fins, Phili, Giants and Jets).
This season:

Cleveland 28 - 10. 31 Rushes for 167 yards, 32 Pass Attempts for 320 yards.
Green Bay 27-16. 35 Rushes for 217 yards, 31 Pass Attempts for 236 yards.
Seattle 34-9. 24 Rushes for 116 yards, 34 Pass Attempts for 331 yards.
Giant 20-8. 21 Rushes for 100 yards, 30 Pass Attempts for 244 yards.


Here are last seasons:

Fins 37-10 36 rushes for 166 yards. 29 Pass Atts for 186 yards.
Chicago 34-10. 25 Rushes for 131 yards. 35 Pass Atts for 300 yards.
Stl. 35-7. 33 Rushes for 171 yards. 33 Pass Atts for 331 yards.
Minnesota 24-14. 29 Rushes for 128 yards. 39 Pass Atts for 253 yards.
Philly 38-17. 32 Rushes for 110 yards. 25 Pass Atts for 324 yards.
Giants 31-20. 25 Rushes for 80 yards. 28 Pass Atts for 243 yards.
Jets 34-3. 34 Rushes for 174 yards. 28 Pass Atts for 170 yards.

Now, two things strike me when I look at these stats. One, that we were much more succesful last year, as opposed to this year. Two, that in every one of these games, we ran a balanced attack, rushing the ball over 20 times in each of these contests. In fact, the only game we did not rush for over a hundred yards is the Giants game in 07.

I think that this is definatly a problem with our game planning, as many have already observed.

 

[Brooksey]

I don't know if running the ball more is the only answer. I like when Dallas opens up and throws the ball with quick huddles out of shotgun, playing the spread formations. We have a lot of playmakers and we need to get them the ball. With the way this defense is playing minus the 2 runs in baltimore, I would like to see us open the passing game up, similar to what we were doing last year and what the Patsies were doing last year. We should be scoring 30 points before the 3rd quarter and closing out games with our running attack. Maybe the problem is Marian barber is not closing out the 4th quarter anymore?